In those not-so-far-off days when puffing a cigarette was thought to be a harmless pleasure, many cigarette packets included pictorial cards celebrating artists and scientists, stars of stage and screen, heroes and villains, and also... clergymen. David Stuckey lights up a little-known history.
CIGARETTE CARDS... to those of a certain age, the memories come drifting back on clouds of nostalgic nicotine. Between the wars they were every schoolboys pocket encyclopaedia. They were the acceptable face of tobacco advertising. They educated as well as entertained.Among the trivia facts of such sets as "Do You Know", "Historic Events" and "The World Tomorrow", there were heroes of the day – footballers with their baggy shorts and Brylcreemed hair parted down the middle; film stars with perfect smiles and prim perms; radio celebrities, those wizards of the wireless; and test cricketers in the days when England still won the Ashes. Even the clergy were covered in cigarette cards, and it is interesting to chart the differing attitudes to those men of the cloth through the years, from deference to derision.
But the clergy featured in cigarette cards are mainly "all gas and gaiters" stereotypes... like the weedy parson in one series, the "Black Cat" types of London, which also includes a Salvation Army lass in the familiar functional uniform which the Army now wishes to change. The Army's founder, General Booth, quite rightly is included in a grander set of "Famous Men", and described as "charismatic and energetic". But to get back to gas and gaiters – one golfing series of cards includes a country parson practising his swing, presumably in a foursome with the squire's guests on a country-house weekend, perpetuating the myth that the fortunate fellow worked only one day in seven.
REAL LIFE HEROES are there as well. Among a lengthy series of Victoria Cross heroes can be found Rev. William Robert Fountaine Addison VC, who was decorated for carrying wounded to the safety of a trench and encouraging stretcher bearers to follow him under heavy fire in Flanders fields. Then there is Dean Inge of St Paul's (see below), looking like a refugee from Toy Town in Phillips' caricatured "Personalities of Today". He was not only "a scholar of profound learning, but also a fearless commentator in the daily press on present-day problems."
One cigarette card, issued in the mid-1930s, must have driven strict Methodists wild (see below right). It is from a series entitled, "Your Birthday Tells Your Fortune", carrying the caveat "this series is issued solely for amusement". Bemusement would be nearer the mark, for John Wesley turns up on the card for those born on the 17th of the month. If you were born on that day (like Wesley, in June 1703) the card suggests "your birthday portends enterprise, and you have the fine quality of sticking to the right, through thick and thin." All good fun – but not for those who believe anything to do with horoscopes is the Devil's work!
 Another manufacturer, Ogden, made up for Wesley's dented reputation by including him in their "Leaders of Men" series, alongside John Knox and William Penn (and also Atilla the Hun, Hannibal and Cardinal Richelieu). In his prime, we are told, Wesley thought nothing of travelling 5,000 miles a year or preaching 15 sermons a week. "As a social reformer, he was far in advance of his time." Bunyan, on the other hand, gets to appear in several literary sets on account of his Pilgrim's Progress, alongside John Milton and the Victorian preacher, C.H. Spurgeon. One card from a Lyons Maid ice-cream set of famous men even includes a cameo illustration from the text of Pilgrim's Progress.
IN THE YEARS AFTER cigarette cards (they were not manufactured in any numbers after the Second World War) modern preachers can be found in what collectors call "trade sets", that is, cards issued with products other than tobacco. The Lyons Maid ice-cream series which features John Bunyan also includes one of the very few cards featuring Billy Graham. Bunyan and Graham share the line-up with the likes of Donald Campbell, Margot Fonteyn and Tony Hancock.In an age which knew not satire (unlike the modern age, where the Pope and Archbishop Runcie were considered fair game for Spitting Image), Archbishop Temple of Canterbury was lampooned in a turn-of-the-century "Vanity Fair". The card bore an unflattering caricature of the Archbishop, and the text read: "His eloquence is such that it can sometimes almost be understood by the laity". The peeved prelate complained, and the card was promptly withdrawn – to be replaced by a Boer War hero. David Stuckey is a freelance journalist and editor of Card Times, a monthly magazine for cigarette and trade cards. To send for a sample copy and subscription details, email him or write to 70 Winifred Lane, Aughton, Ormskirk, Lancs. L39 5DL, enclosing an A4 SAE (40p postage).
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The clergy have included a few Boy's Own heroes along the way. Bishop David Sheppard, for instance, can be found in a few test cricketer series, but his predecessors are mainly among the sets celebrating royal coronations. They include participating prelates such as Archbishop Cosmo Lang of Canterbury (see above) and Bishop Ingram of London.
Someone who knew his flock and his parish well was the legendary Parson Jack Russell, the much-loved Rector of Swymbridge, and recalled in a set celebrating "Devon Worthies". Known as the "hunting parson", he was by all accounts a good orator and a much-loved personality, and he also kept fox hounds and beagles and hunted regularly – despite protests from his bishop.